The 1980s brought remarkable developments to documentary film-flaking in the United States. The decade witnessed the emergence of several promising and innovative filmmakers; the bold exploration of new techniques and styles; increased theatrical, video, and television distribution and exhibition; and significant efforts to educate the American public about social and political issues. By the end of the decade, more Americans were viewing documentaries than ever before, and interest in the documentary had reached an intensity not seen since the days of direct cinema and the social and political unrest of the 1960s. Despite consistent problems with funding and distribution, American documentary of the 1980s gathered a momentum that extended into the 1990s. Before tracing the history of the genre, it is essential to circumscribe the use of the term documentary. The films falling under the rubric nonfiction-for example, social documentaries, nature, concert, comedy performance, IMAX, instructional, and promotional films-are too diverse to allow for a coherent historical or critical account. Thus I will follow conventional practice in setting aside one particular exemplar of nonfiction- the social documentary of feature length (over fifty minutes)-as my focus. Social documentaries deal with human society, broadly speaking, and range from biographies, autobiographies, and histories to films analyzing current social and cultural phenomena.1
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